--but not so minded with any
obstinacy of resolution. If Luke should prefer Martha, the elder, or
Cherry, the younger girl, Mrs. Tappitt would make no objection; but
she expected that he should do his duty by taking one of them. "Laws,
T., don't be so foolish," she said to her husband, when he made his
complaint to her. She always called her husband T., unless when the
solemnity of some special occasion justified her in addressing him
as Mr. Tappitt. To have called him Tom or Thomas, would, in her
estimation, have been very vulgar. "Don't be so foolish. Did you
never have to do with a young man before? Those tantrums will all
blow off when he gets himself into harness." The tantrums spoken of
were Rowan's insane desire to brew good beer, but they were of so
fatal a nature that Tappitt was determined not to submit himself to
them. Luke Rowan should never be partner of his,--not though he had
twenty daughters waiting to be married!

Rachel had been acquainted with the Tappitts before young Rowan
had come to Baslehurst, and had been made known to him by them all
collectively. Had they shared their mother's prudence they would
probably not have done anything so rash. Rachel was better-looking
than either of them,--though that fact perhaps might not have been
known to them. But in justice to them all I must say that they lacked
their mother's prudence. They were good-humoured, laughing, ordinary
girls,--very much alike, with long brown curls, fresh complexions,
large mouths, and thick noses. Augusta was rather the taller of the
three, and therefore, in her mother's eyes, the beauty. But the girls
themselves, when their distant cousin had come amongst them, had not
thought of appropriating him. When, after the first day, they became
intimate with him, they promised to introduce him to the beauties
of the neighbourhood, and Cherry had declared her conviction that
he would fall in love with Rachel Ray directly he saw her. "She is
tall, you know," said Cherry, "a great deal taller than us." "Then
I'm sure I shan't like her," Luke had said. "Oh, but you must like
her, because she is a friend of ours," Cherry had answered; "and I
shouldn't be a bit surprised if you fell violently in love with her."
Mrs. Tappitt did not hear all this, but, nevertheless, she began
to entertain a dislike to Rachel. It must not be supposed that she
admitted her daughter Augusta to any participation in her plans.
Mrs. Tappitt could scheme for her chil